Marketing App Watchlist for 2023

Marketing, especially in this digital landscape, is like a strategic game of social media Tetris. It is important to stay current and diversified based on your marketing strategies, goals, and audiences. Using the right marketing apps at the right time in the right way will help you gain or keep your competitive edge!

In 2022, we saw a rise in the use of video, like Reels, Shorts, and TikTok, while the standards like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn stayed solid in the marketing arena. As we approach 2023, what’s on the horizon that is worth watching for digital marketing?

OUR 2023 DIGITAL MARKETING APP WATCHLIST

When evaluating your marketing strategies and looking for ways to tap the markets you are targeting more effectively, what can you look to for the coming year?

This new platform is crowd-sourced, and as such doesn’t promote advertising. However, it is quite a creative approach to social networking, allowing you to choose different “nodes” and “instances” that fit your needs and goals, as well as protocols that allow you to feel free to express your ideas and content within a network or group of networks, each with its own rules, policies, and procedures.  

• Twitch

With 140 million monthly users, this live-streaming platform allows creators to interact with their audiences in real-time. Although the platform has been used predominantly for gaming, the application to businesses and marketing is solid and provides some great opportunities for brand building, advertising, and generating engagement.

• Discord

Free and easy to use, this voice, video, and text app helps connect you to your audience, influencers, and brands. It allows for you to engage intimate audiences in different, and tailored, forums creating a unique community to build and firmly establish brands. Because there are no limits on who or how many can join your chats, you can expand your reach and track your audiences more closely. Increased visibility and direct interaction with your audiences go a long way to building a strong brand-focused group!

VIDEO TOOLS

As noted previously, the use of short or long-format videos in marketing, as well as socials, will continue to evolve in 2023. If you haven’t already jumped on the bandwagon, it’s time to get started with these fan favorites!

• Be Real

As the advertising agency has been taking hits about all the photo filtering and photoshopping, as well as the move to show your “real” self, a new platform is on the scene. It is called BeReal and it encourages users to post unfiltered photos of themselves at least once during a day, with a notification prompting them to do so. Because the notifications come at random times there is an element of surprise, generating excitement to show off your “real” self! This concept has some potential to help businesses create branding that is authentic and reaches their target market in a “real” way!! Stay tuned!

• Biteable

A cloud-based video creation and editing tool has come onto the scene. Biteable is a platform that you can use to create unique content with customizable themes, and a variety of resources that can take your videos to the next level. Among its appeal is its ease of use, web design tool, and customization that allows you to show off your brand, logs, and color schemes to leave your brand’s impression on your followers.

• Filmora

If you are looking for an intuitive video editor, look no further. Filmora, from Wondershare, is a great tool for beginners or those developing a comfort level with creating video content. There are a ton of special effects and tools to create amazing videos with little muss and fuss!!

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COLLABORATION

Often marketing teams, especially large ones, have many projects going on at the same time, with collaborations, multiple campaigns, and numerous marketing channels at play, posing management obstacles. How do teams manage these challenges? Here are some tools that can help your teams in 2023.

• Asana

Cloud computing is a great way to help with collaboration and Asana offers this perk and the ability to manage projects more easily. The interface of this platform is user-friendly and intuitive. It helps team members prioritize tasks, get real-time updates, improving overall workflow. Team members will be far more efficient and effective with this tool.

• Buffer

Buffer isn’t a new social media app, but it has undergone improvements to maximize its versatility and appeal in the marketing world. It has long been known for its post-scheduling capabilities, but it is so much more! It can link different accounts, updating on a schedule you set up with its easy-to-use dashboard, mobile apps, and extensions. It also fits the bill in providing statistics on how your campaigns and posts have performed so you can make informed decisions about how to manage and proceeds with your projects. Packages vary and depending on your marketing team’s needs and budget, you can plan to spend anywhere from $15 to $400 per month.

• Hootsuite

Hootsuite is another social media management tool rising in popularity for 2023. There is a free option, but with a paid option, you can expect to pay about $25 per month. You can manage all your social media content in one place. It is well-known as a comprehensive platform with bulk scheduling. One perk is you can try it for free with a 30-day trial.

• Sprout Social

Looking for a media management tool that allows you to centralize your content plans and team resources? Then Sprout Social is worth a look. This software allows your team to present your content across multiple platforms, and with its analytics, you can post when your followers are most active.

DATA ANALYTICS

If you aren’t monitoring and analyzing your marketing data, you are aiming for your targets with a blindfold on. In 2023 there are a host of powerful digital marketing apps that can help get you started or take your current data analytics to the next level.

• PLAI

This platform, which sounds like “play”, combines analytics from Google Ads, Google Analytics, and YouTube, providing powerful visuals of your daily marketing efforts. It makes it easy to track data without having to manually access data from all the different websites, find out what is trending content for your marketing niches, and help identify keywords to help you optimize your position on search engines. Plus, it’s easy to use and understand.

• Tableau

Although not a newcomer in analytics programs, Tableau is fast-tracking to a top spot in the data world. The program offers stunning visualizations that make complex sets of data easy to understand. You can also get a laser focus on key strengths and weaknesses in your marketing data, with the ability to drill down into the various data points. Users can identify important observations and patterns while considering the questions they generate.

• Looker

Looker is a newer tool that offers great visuals, analysis, and insights into your marketing campaigns. Dashboards can be set up to provide up-to-date data points, allowing marketers to delve deeply into data and use it to make efficient analyses and drive decision-making. Its ability to connect to a wide variety of databases adds to its appeal as an up-and-coming analytics tool for your marketing research. It’s also highly sharable, which is perfect for marketing teams to use collaboratively.

• Google Data Studio

Another great (and FREE) application for analytics is Google Data Studio. This addition to the Google Suite of programs allows users to aggregate data from multiple sources into dashboards that are shareable within marketing teams. Its simple interface, like many of the other Google products, makes it a great tool for beginners or those who are a bit intimidated by data. Custom data filters help you and your team present data in a way that speaks to your stakeholders to convey intended messaging.

Keep these tools on your radar as you and your marketing teams start planning your 2023 strateg